For Mitchell Elegbe, the story of Interswitch did not begin with an audacious dream to build one of Africa’s most influential technology companies. It began with a much simpler objective: solving a commercial problem. As a young business development professional, Elegbe had a product to sell but struggled to find someone willing to buy it. His response was unconventional, if there was no customer, he would create one. That decision eventually became the foundation of Interswitch and set him on a leadership journey that would reshape the way millions of Africans transact and interact with financial technology.
Elegbe, founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch, has often reflected on the paradox of his entrepreneurial journey. When he started, he was not dreaming of becoming a founder or chief executive. He had spent only a few years working after university and was comfortable earning a salary. His ambition was modest: make a sale and build a successful career. But when a new business emerged from the need to purchase the product he was selling, circumstances pushed him into entrepreneurship. At 29, with limited management experience, he accepted the responsibility of leading the company.
The first major turning point came only a year later, when Interswitch became profitable. That achievement changed Elegbe’s perspective. The small idea had worked, and suddenly the possibilities appeared much larger. “That was when thinking big started,” he recalled. His experience became a powerful demonstration that ambition does not always have to precede execution. Sometimes, execution creates the confidence and knowledge required to think bigger.
That distinction remains central to Elegbe’s philosophy. In his view, entrepreneurs should not become so consumed by the size of their dreams that they fail to execute. A person can spend years imagining an enormous enterprise while another individual executes a modest idea and gradually turns it into something significant. The size of the dream matters, but execution determines whether the dream becomes an enterprise.
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That philosophy is particularly relevant in Nigeria, where entrepreneurs operate within an environment characterised by infrastructure gaps, economic uncertainty, regulatory changes, limited purchasing power and other structural challenges. Yet Elegbe believes that the challenges should never be considered in isolation from the opportunities they create. For him, Nigeria’s difficulties are often evidence of problems waiting to be solved.
His own entrepreneurial journey provides a compelling example. When Interswitch was founded, Nigeria’s banking experience was dramatically different from today’s digital environment. Customers worked for their money, deposited it in banks and then physically returned to withdraw it, often collecting numbers and waiting in long queues. Elegbe saw an inefficient system that could be transformed through technology.
The solution was to develop an electronic payment infrastructure that could make transactions faster and more convenient. But the ambition was particularly bold for its time. Interswitch sought to build an online, real-time payment system in a country where electricity supply and telecommunications infrastructure were unreliable. Many people believed such a system could not work effectively in Nigeria. Elegbe, an engineer by training, approached the problem differently. Instead of allowing infrastructure challenges to define what was possible, he believed technology and engineering could be used to design around some of those constraints.
That approach became one of the defining principles of his career: problems are local, and solutions must be designed with local realities in mind. When the technology required by Interswitch proved too expensive for the Nigerian market, Elegbe travelled to South Africa to negotiate with the technology provider. He explained that a product designed for a wealthier market could not simply be transferred to a country where consumers and banks operated under different economic conditions. The technology, initially priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars, was eventually secured for a much lower amount.
The episode demonstrated the importance of unit economics. For Elegbe, scaling is not simply about increasing revenue, customers or geographical reach. A business must first establish economics that make sense for its market. If the product is too expensive for the customer, growth will remain difficult regardless of how attractive the technology appears. Interswitch therefore built its early growth around affordability, functionality and a clear understanding of what the Nigerian market could support.
This distinction between growth and scaling is one of the strongest lessons Elegbe offers entrepreneurs. Revenue growth alone does not constitute scale. A company can increase sales while simultaneously increasing losses. It can attract customers without establishing a sustainable business model. It can raise substantial capital while remaining economically fragile. Elegbe’s position is straightforward: losses cannot be scaled; sustainable profitability is essential to genuine scale.
Interswitch’s evolution was also shaped by a series of unexpected shocks. The company initially built its business plan around a Nigerian banking sector containing more than 90 banks. The subsequent banking consolidation reduced the number of banks dramatically, forcing the company to rethink its assumptions. Rather than abandoning the business, the leadership adapted. The crisis became another test of the company’s ability to adjust.
Another major disruption came when payment fraud increased around magnetic-stripe cards. Interswitch had already anticipated the global transition towards more secure chip-and-PIN technology, but the economics had made immediate adoption difficult. As fraud increased, the business accelerated the transition and developed Verve. What initially appeared to be a major threat ultimately created an opportunity to introduce a more secure payment product. Verve subsequently became a major part of Nigeria’s card ecosystem.
Regulatory changes provided another test. At one point, changes to ATM withdrawal fees dramatically reduced the revenue available to payment infrastructure providers. Interswitch had to reduce its own fees substantially. Yet the lower price increased transaction activity, demonstrating that affordability could sometimes create greater volume and compensate for lower margins.
Perhaps more revealing was the forced transition from magnetic-stripe cards to chip cards, which resulted in the immediate loss of millions of customers. In spite of the disruption, Interswitch remained profitable. For Elegbe, the episode reinforced the importance of diversification. A business that depends entirely on one product, revenue stream or market exposure can become vulnerable when an external shock changes the rules. Resilience therefore has to be designed into the enterprise before the crisis arrives.
That philosophy also shaped Interswitch’s approach to expansion. The company did not initially set out to solve Africa’s entire payments problem. It focused on Nigeria and concentrated on solving the problem in front of it. As the solution matured, opportunities emerged elsewhere. Uganda became one of the company’s early international markets after stakeholders there approached Interswitch because they had observed what the company was achieving in Nigeria.
The lesson is significant for African entrepreneurs: scaling should be anticipated, but it should not be confused with premature expansion. Entrepreneurs should build their early systems, people, technology and operating models with future scale in mind while remaining focused on solving the immediate problem effectively.
Elegbe also places considerable emphasis on leadership sacrifice. In the early days of Interswitch, the company raised substantially less capital than originally required. With limited access to the venture-capital and private-equity ecosystem that exists today, the founders had to operate within their means. Elegbe sacrificed executive benefits, including a company car, because the business could not justify the expense while struggling to secure sufficient funds for salaries and operations. Other members of the leadership team followed his example.
For Elegbe, this was more than cost-cutting. It was leadership by example. When the leader is willing to sacrifice, employees are more likely to understand the sacrifices required of everyone else. In difficult markets, that culture can become an important source of organisational resilience.
He also cautions entrepreneurs against blindly importing business models from developed markets. “Silicon Valley is not tropical savannah,” he argued, making the point that strategies developed in wealthy, infrastructure-rich environments often require significant adaptation before they can succeed in Africa. Consumer purchasing power, regulation, infrastructure, demographics and cultural behaviour all influence how businesses operate. Global knowledge remains valuable, but it must be adapted to local conditions.
This perspective is also reflected in how Elegbe defines Interswitch. Although widely known as a payments company, he describes the organisation more fundamentally as a technology company that uses technology to solve problems. Payments became the company’s defining market because that was the first major problem it addressed. The underlying capability, however, is technology and the ability to apply it to complex problems.
That broader perspective has informed his view of Africa’s next generation of opportunities. Food and agriculture, energy, clean cooking, waste management, water and sanitation, healthcare, housing and construction all present significant challenges—and therefore potentially significant markets. Nigeria’s rapidly growing population will require better systems to produce food, manage waste, generate energy, provide housing and deliver healthcare.
For Elegbe, the question is not whether Nigeria has enough problems. It is whether entrepreneurs are prepared to see those problems as opportunities. A continent with infrastructure gaps is also a continent with enormous unmet demand. A country struggling with housing affordability represents a market for innovative construction. Agricultural waste represents an opportunity for better storage, processing and distribution. Energy shortages represent an opportunity for new power solutions.
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As Nigeria looks towards 2050, Elegbe believes entrepreneurs should think about the scale of the opportunity ahead. A much larger population will require businesses capable of serving increasingly complex needs. The entrepreneurs who begin solving those problems today may ultimately build some of the institutions that define the country’s economic future.
The journey of Interswitch offers a useful blueprint. It began with a small commercial problem, developed a locally relevant technological solution, established viable economics, adapted through repeated shocks and eventually expanded beyond its original market. Elegbe did not begin by trying to build everything. He began by solving one problem.
That may be the most enduring lesson from his journey: think about scale, but start with what you can execute; recognise the challenges, but search relentlessly for the opportunity within them; and never confuse the size of a dream with the quality of its execution.
For Mitchell Elegbe, the future of African enterprise will not be built simply by dreaming bigger. It will be built by entrepreneurs willing to identify difficult problems, develop practical solutions, build sustainable businesses and execute with the discipline required to turn possibility into lasting enterprise.
